


What is family ?

by SweetTsubaki



Series: Tim Drake Week 2017 [4]
Category: Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics), Robin (Comics), Teen Titans (Comics), Young Justice (Comics)
Genre: Gen, Post-Crisis (DCU), Pre-Flashpoint (DCU), Pre-New 52
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-19
Updated: 2017-07-19
Packaged: 2018-12-04 08:28:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11551389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SweetTsubaki/pseuds/SweetTsubaki
Summary: Tim always wanted a family but things aren't that simple. Or are they ?Tim Drake Week - Day 4 : Enemies/Family





	What is family ?

**Author's Note:**

> This one's a little longer than I expected (I try to do less than 1000 word each) I hope you'll enjoy it.

There were many Rogues in Gotham, but each of its vigilantes had their own nemeses among them. Well Tim only had one. One whom, strangely, none of the other members  of the Batfam had ever gone against (and while they were all competent he was a special breed which would be hard to overcome for anyone other than him, Bruce or Barbara, well even for him it was hard), two if you added Ra's Al Ghul on the list after Ulysses but Tim wasn't sure whether to call him a nemesis or a creepily obsessed stalker (he **_had_ ** sent him a woman to bear his heir and if this wasn't a creepily obsessive behavior then what was).  
Well and King Snake but it was a whole can he'd rather avoid opening.

But Tim had held his own against them all. And especially against the Joker.

Sure the Joker wasn't the worst of them all really (honestly in Tim's mind Scarecrow, Ulysses, and the Riddler were on top of the list), but he **_was_** the one who had murdered Robin and seeing Robin back, well…He might have developed a bit of an obsession too even if, weirdly he never seemed that tempted to act on it aside from their first encounter.

His first meeting with Scarecrow (who was Dick's own Gotham nemesis) had been quite something too since it was thanks to that encounter that Batman had allowed him to become Robin. Though now that he was older and more -or less depending on how you see it- emotionally stable he was trying to remember if the hallucinations he had seen were due to a bit of the gas reaching him or not (he had thought Conner was another hallucination back in Paris after all).

And of Course Two-Face, the first time he met Bruce and Alfred…How had they never realized Tim wasn't alright is beyond him now that he's started introspecting on his life as Robin since the very beginning.

Finally, the Riddler. He may not have faced him much but Tim would be lying if he didn't admit that, despite the lives hanging in the balance, he couldn't help but enjoy trying to solve those riddles (to this day his favorites were the ones on baseball and that time he had to team up with Wally).

Of course he had face them all but, some like Penguin were a real pain but they weren't that important to him. Others like Selina or Ivy were different because Selina had, at least partially settled down (and was usually pretty nice to him even if she loved mocking him) and he couldn't help but feel for Ivy's crusade.

The biggest one though had been Jason Todd (and Damian Wayne). Because Bruce was still so attached to him and Tim had tried, he had freed Jason because he chose to let his own issues go and give Jason a chance. What a bad idea that was. Apparently the pit Madness was still present. Even if it had lessened.

* * *

Now. Now however Jason seemed to have slightly settled. And Tim still felt the guilt for letting him go too soon but he had still let go of most of his resentment toward him. So sure Jason wouldn't be his family (maybe one day but at most Tim believes they'll be cordial to each other), but at least he and Bruce were making progress and really that's what matters even if…  
Tim had always wanted a family. It was easier to admit now that he had finally mourned his father, but he never really gave him one. First he and his mother kept leaving him behind, then Jack was forced to stay and still had the reflex to leave him behind when he wanted to -even if for lesser lengths of time- and got angry when Tim had to cancel at the last minute. Tim now realized the depth of the hypocrisy his father had shown back then. The anger he always directed at Tim for simple mistakes. Tim realized it now, because he followed some courses on parenting to be of at least some use to his Neon Knights Program (also Conner had convinced him to see a therapist who treated the few heroes who admitted they needed the help and seeked resolution. Bruce had, of course, verified all their references before Tim could even think about it, after all if they had been helping Kon they were probably good -and Conner seemed to feel so much better). He realized now that his parents had been neglectful and that his father managed to be both neglectful and verbally abusive (and physically violent even if it was never directed at Tim's body, it was still only directed at **_Tim's_** stuff).

So he wanted a family and when he was 9 he started projecting on Dick, because Dick had hugged him when he was still pretty much a baby and he had been so happy and Dick was Robin, and he had been taken in by Bruce Wayne, by Batman and he seemed so happy. And not long after this Jason joined and, well Tim didn't know him so he mostly focused on him as Robin.

And then he really met them and, of course they weren't a family. It was a job and Tim still wanted his parents to be the ones taking care of him.  
Still he and Bruce got closer, especially after his father became comatose and his mother died. Because there was no way to know when he'd wake up and Bruce and Alfred took care of him and, sure it was more like going to your grandparents with your uncle than anything else but it was the closest Tim had had to a real family since he had been 4 or 5.  
And Dick. It took about a year but Dick became Tim's big brother, and oh how he loved him. Dick was easily one of the most important people in Tim's life, the one person (with Conner and Bart) he thought would never hurt him. Of course he ended up being wrong but he still loved him so much and Tim shouldn't feel so betrayed for one little mistake but he couldn't help himself (according to his therapist though he should have a talk with Dick because apparently it wasn't just one simple mistake but, Tim didn't want to ruin the fragile status quo they had reached. Of course he knew his therapist was right but he just couldn't do it).

Now Dick was obviously the biggest influence on him, but one shouldn't forget Alfred Pennyworth, who was the one person _everybody_ loved and no one could refuse him anything. Alfred loved everyone so much and they all know it. If there's one thing that they knew it was that.

One of the thing that surprises Tim the most is the number of sisterly figures he gained : Barbara who was like a mom sometimes, whom he shared a passion for computers with, one of the rare people who was more intelligent than him. Helena who was one of the first people he teamed up with and who had become a sort of on and off sisterly figure to him (who allowed him to raid her fridge), he only partially trusted her on the field, but if you put aside her murdering streak she was genuinely one of the most compassionate people he met (as long as you weren't a criminal). Finally Cassandra Cain who had just come back to Gotham had really intimidated him at first, not especially because of her skills and efficiency (though there was that) but because of her kind heart and strong will which made him ashamed of his own. But he got past it and things weren't always good but he loves her so much, she's one of his favorite people in the world. And he's so glad he accepted to see a therapist because she convinced him to *force* a little reconnection with them and they're all amazingly supportive.

He misses Harold, who was great company when he was around despite his lack of speech. He misses Ace, the Bat Hound who was the only pet he was ever allowed to have (he could hep but be jealous of Damian's zoo as he was never even allowed to keep a cat for a night and he had never dared ask his parents for one before, at least not since he was a kid and decided they wouldn't be able to take care of a pet and that they didn't want to take one and have to take it back if Tim grew bored…He couldn't help make a parallel now and it's one of those times he wishes he had never gone to that therapist). He misses Steph even if he now realized how unhealthy they were being. It might have been better if they had been friends (if he hadn't tried to run from the drama with Ariana), according to his dear therapist one of their biggest issues was the imbalance in power due to Tim mentoring Steph at the beginning, maybe now they could work on that and start being friends.  
Not to forget Dana, his sweet step-mother. She was still in a mental institute but Metropolis was a lot better for her health than Blüdhaven was (not that it was a surprise) and he had -finally- introduced her to some of his fellow Titans. She of course fell in love with Bart and Kon who were "sweet and thoughtful". One day she even took them aside and they discussed something that none of them ever revealed to him, but whichever it was, it obviously made them all happy (and really as long as they were happy he didn't care that much what had happened).  
He and Damian still didn't get along but they did have a sort of truce now (mostly because Damian's pets liked it when Tim petted them and it probably did more for Tim's cause than anything else ever could. On his side Tim had admitted to himself all the progress Damian had done and it was easier to not see him as a threat).

Then there were his friends. Young Justice had felt like a holiday camp sometimes, it was mostly fun and Tim couldn't help but wish he had been able to be himself completely and not just the Robin part of him. Back then it felt like they were all a bunch of (un)disciplined siblings and cousins. Then Donna died and…Well things got hard. Cassie who already had anger issues became worse and… he still can't believe they dated when they never really saw each other as anything but siblings (it says a lot about what Conner's death did to them and…Well he only started on this part with his therapist but at some point, they had had a weird knowing smile that felt slightly out of place). He loved Cassie but not in a romantic way and he felt honestly disturbed every time that week-end wass brought up.  
Bart was like a little brother whom he had mentored for a while, he was a true and tried genius when it came to engineering and computer programming. Tim would be jealous if he wasn't so proud of everything Bart had accomplished (or simply happy that Bart was alive), some of the Titans usually joked that Bart was the Baby friend to Tim's Dad Friend Trope and to Conner's Mom Friend one (they didn't know that Tim and Conner had done it long ago and he never realized how right he was).

And of course Conner. His best friend still loved to mock him (and it went both ways, Tim never missed his shot), but they were even closer than before. When he died Conner had been away for a couple of weeks and refused his calls because he felt guilty for breaking his arm (and other things which...honestly were too big to start thinking about). But before that he had been one of the rare people able to convince Tim that he wasn't a bother and that he should talk to him/them when something weighted him down (of course he still needed a push but he accepted it gladly). And Tim knew that, likewise, he was one of the rare people Conner felt comfortable talking about his harshest fears and issues with. Despite this, or maybe because of it, Conner was probably the healthiest relationship Tim has ever had with anyone (even Bart and Cass) because they didn't hesitate to talk about things that were wrong between them (not that there were many to begin with) and they actually dealt with them and that before even going to a therapist, they had even gone to a session together once, they had joked that it was couple counselling and the therapist told them that a lot more friends should do it because whether it's romantic or platonic every relationships need work. But, apparently theirs didn't because they naturally (or not, apparently it's mostly thanks to an advice Conner got from the then supergirl that they started having healthier reflexes) dealt with their issues.  
So yeah lots of love and support there. It was nice to have at least one person he could entirely trust and rely on.

And Tim couldn't help it but, it gave him hope for the future.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed it. As most of my works it was unbeta-ed.
> 
> For the physically violence toward Tim's stuff, I don't remember the number of the issue but there was at least once when Jack broke Tim's TV because Tim was distracted by it. (if I remember correctly it was after Jack grounded Tim because he refused to listen to Tim's explanation after Ariana's uncle called him and Tim was stuck in his room so he was watching the news which are, admittedly slightly more important than his father coming to explain to Tim how it was his fault that Jack ended up reacting this way...A++ Father Jack)
> 
> If you wanna talk [here's my writing tumblr](https://sweetwriting.tumblr.com/)


End file.
